Welcome
My name's Kyle.
Thanks for being here.
This site is a constantly evolving storeroom of images and things I’ve made over the years
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as well as a place to see what I offer and book time with me to make images.
Making images in a long-exposure medium from the 1800s requires presence, patience, and work –– I often say that sitting for a tintype is more like sitting for a painting than any modern photo. The intentionality of the set-up is key, and then we yield to the moment.
Photography is a process of discovery.
It's an inherently uncertain and subjective practice, all about the spontaneity of a given time and
You & I
My ideal collaborators have a desire for an heirloom photograph with the qualities of tintypes that I most enjoy and embrace at a special moment in their life: a time of change or transition, stress or courage, celebration or renewal, sentimentality or curiosity.
How Tintype Found Me
I was initially drawn to this medium by the surface qualities of the process. I recall seeing a tintype of Morro Rock (a volcanic remnant and landmark of the harbor of Morro Bay, CA that I could see from the windows of my childhood home) by renowned wet-plate photographer Joni Sternbach and being incredibly moved by it.
The tintype wasn't a snapshot, it was a material impression with uneven edges that gave clues to how it was made. The surface appeared tactile and veil-like, as if the scene had been burned onto an old piece of parchment.​ I carry the spirit of that initial impression with me.
Within two months of that encounter, I joined Mike Chylinski and Brian Cuyler in one of their tintype workshops in Los Angeles, and I’ve been making tintypes continually since that weekend in 2019.
The Red Room
I've been at my current studio in the lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle for 3 years, in a building shared with a few other creatives. The room next-door to my studio is a small art library (pictured below) that everyone is welcome to explore during sessions for inspiration.
The Red Room is wherever I set up my darkroom.. in studios, deserts, forests, beaches, pueblo ruins, backyards, pubs, tattoo shops, alleyways and antique stores. It's named after the liminal space in Twin Peaks that exists between worlds. And of course it's named after the red light I use in my darkroom.
My time is Seattle is soon coming to an end, as my partner and I prepare to move to the Central Coast of California where I was raised, probably around the end of September 2025. If you're in or near Seattle, I'd love to work with you while I'm still in town.
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All the best,
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Kyle McMillin
